By Ben Raines
February 05, 2010, 5:44PM
This photo provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority on Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, shows continuing coal ash recovery efforts from a massive spill in December 2008 at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tenn. A company in Mobile, Ala., said Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, that it would no longer accept liquid waste from the Perry County landfill, which has been accepting some of the waste generated as part of the ash spill cleanup.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Liquid Environmental Solutions announced this afternoon that the company will no longer accept shipments of waste liquids from the Perry County landfill, where the waste was generated as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority's cleanup of a massive 2008 coal ash spill.
"While Liquid Environmental Solutions properly accepted, tested and treated the non-hazardous Perry County landfill wastewater, we have decided to stop accepting it," the company said in a statement on its Web site.
"We take our responsibility of corporate citizenship in Mobile very seriously and want to diligently work with the community to ensure local concerns are adequately addressed."
The company had accepted 5 shipments of arsenic and heavy metal-laced leachate -- the liquids that collect in the bottom of a landfill. The Perry County landfill is accepting about 100 rail cars a day containing coal ash spilled after an accident at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management officials had said the Mobile facility, which accepted its last shipment Jan. 27, was the only one in the state clearly permitted to accept the leachate. It is unclear what will happen with the material now.
Neither the Alabama Department of Environmental Management nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could say how many gallons of leachate are being sucked out of the Perry County landfill each day, and where those gallons are going.
The arrangement to ship leachate to Mobile was made after a lawsuit was filed in the fall regarding shipments to the city of Marion wastewater plant. EPA officials suggested the material be sent elsewhere at that time, according to agency officials.
(For a complete report, read Saturday's Press-Register.)
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